Credit Bureaus Agree to Improve Service

The nation's three major consumer reporting agencies agreed to meet certain standards for their call centers that handle consumer inquiries regarding the status of their credit ratings as part of an agreement to settle an Federal Trade Commission complaint

Equifax, Atlanta; Experian, Orange, CA; and Trans Union, Chicago, all said they would maintain a blocked call rate of no more than 10 percent and an average hold time of no more than 3 1/2 minutes. In addition, they agreed to pay a total of $2.5 million.

The FTC alleges that customers who want to make corrections to their credit reports often had to wait on hold for an inordinate amount of time, effectively making the agencies inaccessible. The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires that the agencies maintain a toll-free number that consumers can access during normal business hours to make any corrections.